Is that an obvious thing? All I remember was seeing her competing against Twilight in the same High School event, which suggested they were the same age (or that one of them was pretending to be the same age as the other).

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Is that an obvious thing? All I remember was seeing her competing against Twilight in the same High School event, which suggested they were the same age (or that one of them was pretending to be the same age as the other).

Sure, but as you'll see in my notes, it's entirely possible given the length of Twilight's training that her studies overlapped with Shimmer's and maybe even Cadance's. I took that to mean that Celestia teaches each one in their own bubble, as it were.

EDIT: Oh hell, I forgot that Cadance was an Alicorn as early as whatever age she's supposed to be during Twilight's foalsitter memories. Gah.

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Sure, but as you'll see in my notes, it's entirely possible given the length of Twilight's training that her studies overlapped with Shimmer's and maybe even Cadance's. I took that to mean that Celestia teaches each one in their own bubble, as it were.

Well, if we go by the comic's first (and only as of yet) annual special, then when Sunset was around Twilight's age while training under Celestia, Twilight was a filly (we see her in the background). Twilight could have been Celestia's student then, but it would have been a year overlap at best.

You mentioned Sunset and Twilight apparently being the same age in the human world, but do remember that this is the same world where Celestia and Luna are presumably-mortal high school administrators. As for other proof that the ages don't match up between worlds, the fact that the human CMC attend the same school is odd, but there are explanations that don't involve age shifting, so that's not proof either way. There is the fact that human Cheerilee is older than the human Main Six, when she was shown being Rarity's age in "Cutie Mark Chronicles". Now, this could have otherwise been disregarded as season 1's quirk of reusing whatever character assets they could, but then they went and specifically showed filly Cheerilee, along with younger versions of other characters, during Cheese's flashback toward the end of "Pinkie Pride". Plus, if we allow the comics as proof, then human Babs Seed is older than human Applejack, which is all kinds of weird.

On another note, my thoughts on comic #19:

This was far from a bad issue, but it's kind of disappointing that in the third issue of this arc out of four, a ton of focus is being placed on Celestia's romance with the frankly dull Alternate Sombra. We barely see the present time of the story and it doesn't feel like it's building up to a climax. As I've seen others say elsewhere, this feels like issue 3 out of 5. After all the promise from the great first issue and the good second issue, it's disappointing that the "alternate world" aspects aren't being explored as much as they could have been. I'm starting to suspect that the back-up story of this issue is the only time we'll see the Alternate Main Six, in fact.

Alternate Sombra is generically nice and thus dull, and they didn't even go the obvious route of making a theme out of having Celestia's connection with him grow as her connection with Luna diminishes. I mean, it's mentioned, but that's more of a telling instead of showing case. Parts of the flashback even explicitly take place after Luna's banishment, and it would have been a nice bonding scene between Alternate Sombra and Celestia for her to talk to him about it, but we got no such thing. Plus, nothing at all done with the fact that Celestia had to fight Non-Alternate Sombra during her courtship? Celestia being awkward was interesting to see, but it's hard to tell what she sees in Sombra other than his appearance, and the entire thing reminds me of how a courtship between Twilight and Flash Sentry would go, except more interesting... but still not very interesting. Actually, writing that out, it's very likely that the resemblance to Twilight and Flash Sentry's relationship was intentional, but that doesn't make it good.

As mentioned here, Alternate Celestia and Luna are not that effective as villains so far, except for their expressions. Nothing in particular is being done with who they are alternate versions of, besides the "hurting them hurts the non-alternate versions" thing. Even Twilight didn't seem to think much of who they are, beyond a few lines in the second issue. When the summaries for these issue came out, I suspected that the reason why Alternate Celestia was evil was due to the mistake Non-Alternate Celestia made mentioned in them, but no, this issue confirms that Alternate Celestia was evil even before she arrived. Plus, in both this and the previous issue, they didn't feel like that big of threats at all, especially with how the Main Six appeared to be handling them just fine until the linked pain thing came up. In fact, they only reason they're still a danger is because the Main Six decided not to use the Elements of Harmony then and there for whatever reason.

It's still a fine issue, but it's disappointing to see such a great set up being used for a relatively dull output. That said, there were some nice gags as always, and the art was great, especially in that two-page spread.

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Well, if we go by the comic's first (and only as of yet) annual special, then when Sunset was around Twilight's age while training under Celestia, Twilight was a filly (we see her in the background). Twilight could have been Celestia's student then, but it would have been a year overlap at best.

1) Cadance doesn't seem crazy-older than Twi, I'm guessing maybe 8 years, tops. Hence, I'm putting the start of her tuition at 18 BF, ten years before Twilight begins hers. That would make Cadance 18 and Twilight 10 during the foalsitting timeframe.
2) Given that Sunset Shimmer is clearly a crazy bitch, I can't imagine Celestia putting up with her for long, so I'm suggesting she only studied under Celestia later in life, and only for two years (starting 12 BF, ending 10 BF).
3) I figure a good reason for Cadance foalsitting Twilight would be that Twi had recently become a student of Celestia, as Cadance was before her. We know Cadance was a Princess at that point, so I'm putting her ascension at 11 BF, a little before Twilight begins her tuition (10 BF).

Now I want you to imagine me doing that thing people always do on TV after they've spoken for ages. The big, gasping breath thing.

You mentioned Sunset and Twilight apparently being the same age in the human world, but do remember that this is the same world where Celestia and Luna are presumably-mortal high school administrators. As for other proof that the ages don't match up between worlds, the fact that the human CMC attend the same school is odd, but there are explanations that don't involve age shifting, so that's not proof either way. There is the fact that human Cheerilee is older than the human Main Six, when she was shown being Rarity's age in "Cutie Mark Chronicles". Now, this could have otherwise been disregarded as season 1's quirk of reusing whatever character assets they could, but then they went and specifically showed filly Cheerilee, along with younger versions of other characters, during Cheese's flashback toward the end of "Pinkie Pride". Plus, if we allow the comics as proof, then human Babs Seed is older than human Applejack, which is all kinds of weird.

Yup, as you and DrForester noted, it seems like Sunset Shimmer is closer in age to Cadance than she is Twilight. And as you've also rightly pointed out, the EG world is utterly unreliable when it comes to age.

God, the thought of trying to rationalise the ages of characters like Cheerilee is just making my head hurt now.

This was far from a bad issue, but it's kind of disappointing that in the third issue of this arc out of four, a ton of focus is being placed on Celestia's romance with the frankly dull Alternate Sombra. We barely see the present time of the story and it doesn't feel like it's building up to a climax. As I've seen others say elsewhere, this feels like issue 3 out of 5. After all the promise from the great first issue and the good second issue, it's disappointing that the "alternate world" aspects aren't being explored as much as they could have been. I'm starting to suspect that the back-up story of this issue is the only time we'll see the Alternate Main Six, in fact.

Alternate Sombra is generically nice and thus dull, and they didn't even go the obvious route of making a theme out of having Celestia's connection with him grow as her connection with Luna diminishes. I mean, it's mentioned, but that's more of a telling instead of showing case. Parts of the flashback even explicitly take place after Luna's banishment, and it would have been a nice bonding scene between Alternate Sombra and Celestia for her to talk to him about it, but we got no such thing. Plus, nothing at all done with the fact that Celestia had to fight Non-Alternate Sombra during her courtship? Celestia being awkward was interesting to see, but it's hard to tell what she sees in Sombra other than his appearance, and the entire thing reminds me of how a courtship between Twilight and Flash Sentry would go, except more interesting... but still not very interesting. Actually, writing that out, it's very likely that the resemblance to Twilight and Flash Sentry's relationship was intentional, but that doesn't make it good.

As mentioned here, Alternate Celestia and Luna are not that effective as villains so far, except for their expressions. Nothing in particular is being done with who they are alternate versions of, besides the "hurting them hurts the non-alternate versions" thing. Even Twilight didn't seem to think much of who they are, beyond a few lines in the second issue. When the summaries for these issue came out, I suspected that the reason why Alternate Celestia was evil was due to the mistake Non-Alternate Celestia made mentioned in them, but no, this issue confirms that Alternate Celestia was evil even before she arrived. Plus, in both this and the previous issue, they didn't feel like that big of threats at all, especially with how the Main Six appeared to be handling them just fine until the linked pain thing came up. In fact, they only reason they're still a danger is because the Main Six decided not to use the Elements of Harmony then and there for whatever reason.

It's still a fine issue, but it's disappointing to see such a great set up being used for a relatively dull output. That said, there were some nice gags as always, and the art was great, especially in that two-page spread.

Member

Well, to add another wrinkle to the timeline, there is the book by G.M. Berrow, Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, that briefly goes over Cadance's backstory. It reveals that she was originally a pegasus orphan raised by earth ponies and become an alicorn when she was a filly after showing love to an evil witch and purifying a magic amulet she was using, whereupon she goes to the "celestial realm" from "Magical Mystery Cure" and meets Celestia for the first time. After that, she is adopted by Celestia and is given lessons on being a princess.

... It really is quite a bother being part of a fanbase where important details of major characters are only revealed in supplemental stories of questionable canon.

Member

Well, to add another wrinkle to the timeline, there is the book by G.M. Berrow, Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, that briefly goes over Cadance's backstory. It reveals that she was originally a pegasus orphan raised by earth ponies and become an alicorn when she was a filly after showing love to an evil witch and purifying a magic amulet she was using, whereupon she goes to the "celestial realm" from "Magical Mystery Cure" and meets Celestia for the first time. After that, she is adopted by Celestia and is given lessons on being a princess.

... It really is quite a bother being part of a fanbase where important details of major characters are only revealed in supplemental stories of questionable canon.

I guess I'll stick to the show and the comics for now. For a bunch of reasons, not least that I don't really have easy access to the novels and don't much fancy having to buy and read them all in case they contradict anything.

Also that stuff about Cadance becoming a Princess messes with my Celestia's Princess Uplift Program theory, and I'll be damned if I'll let G.M. Berrow make a liar out of me.

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Looking at the unboxing video, I'm surprised just how much there is, both of the actual journal of the two sisters and the section devoted to what the Main Six wrote. It's especially interesting seeing glimpses of griffons and such during the former section. This is being written by Amy Keating Rogers, so it's probably the "most official" of any non-show spinoffs... and is sure to screw up Paullo's timeline.

Member

Looking at the unboxing video, I'm surprised just how much there is, both of the actual journal of the two sisters and the section devoted to what the Main Six wrote. It's especially interesting seeing glimpses of griffons and such during the former section. This is being written by Amy Keating Rogers, so it's probably the "most official" of any non-show spinoffs...

Changing the timeline is actually easy compared with trying to rationalize which sources of information to include and which to ignore! I'm leaning towards making merch written by members of the show-staff an exception to the "TV and Comics only" rule...

Banned

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I have a big announcement for you all! You might have heard already but I've recently decided to start my own production company, Smash Music Productions, and this weekend we won a Leo for songs and score on Hasbro's Littlest Pet Shop. We were nominated for both LPS and My Little Pony. Unfortunately we can't win for both! Since we took it for MLP last year I suppose this year it was LPS's turn

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The unboxing video of the new book was posted on ED, and just from the guy flipping through the pages, several details have been parsed. Here's a post from the ED comments:

Without getting too in-depth with spoilers, here's a lsit of stories containe din the journal:

-Celestia and Luna become princesses of the newly founded Equestria under Star Swirl's guidance
-They choose the Tree of Harmony in the Everfree Forest as the location for their castle
-Luna fights a manticore called Melvin in the Everfree Forest
-The castle is built and Princess Platinum and her father arrive to pay tribute. Platinum and Luna get into a fight.
-another story with Melvin the Manticore, and a zebra
-a story with Commander Hurricane and a griffon called Gregor
-Luna and Celestia raise the sun and moon for the first time

And details gathering from another comment and posts on The Round Stable:

- Celestia and Luna did not have their cutie marks when they became princesses, and they were already alicorns.
- Princess Platinum's father is King Bullion.
- Before Celestia and Luna, there were six unicorns tasked with raising and lowering the sun and moon, but except for Starswirl, a unicorn could only assist in this task for a few times before completely losing his or her magic. At one point, Starswirl has to lower the moon himself, but is unable to, and the effort is what turned his beard gray.

That last part is surprisingly grim (especially if you remove the "children's property" filter, whereupon "losing magic" becomes "dying").

Overall, a lot of interesting stuff that does match up with how a lot of people had the timeline laid out already, but with a lot of new details already.

Member

The unboxing video of the new book was posted on ED, and just from the guy flipping through the pages, several details have been parsed. Here's a post from the ED comments:

-Celestia and Luna become princesses of the newly founded Equestria under Star Swirl's guidance
-They choose the Tree of Harmony in the Everfree Forest as the location for their castle
-Luna fights a manticore called Melvin in the Everfree Forest
-The castle is built and Princess Platinum and her father arrive to pay tribute. Platinum and Luna get into a fight.
-another story with Melvin the Manticore, and a zebra
-a story with Commander Hurricane and a griffon called Gregor
-Luna and Celestia raise the sun and moon for the first time

And details gathering from another comment and posts on The Round Stable:

- Celestia and Luna did not have their cutie marks when they became princesses, and they were already alicorns.
- Princess Platinum's father is King Bullion.
- Before Celestia and Luna, there were six unicorns tasked with raising and lowering the sun and moon, but except for Starswirl, a unicorn could only assist in this task for a few times before completely losing his or her magic. At one point, Starswirl has to lower the moon himself, but is unable to, and the effort is what turned his beard gray.

That last part is surprisingly grim (especially if you remove the "children's property" filter, whereupon "losing magic" becomes "dying").

Overall, a lot of interesting stuff that does match up with how a lot of people had the timeline laid out already, but with a lot of new details already.

Member

Member

Ton of timeline updates made. A lot of the Cadance stuff has been revised based on info from the comics, and I've added in a ton of Starswirl stuff too. Finally, I've tried to drop in some of the more significant leaked bits from the Journal of the Two Sisters.

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Sony Pictures Animation today announced the acquisition of an original animated comedy feature pitch by Todd Alcott and Holly Golden entitled MEDUSA, which will tell an all-new story behind the infamous snake-headed lady from Greek mythology. Emmy winner Lauren Faust, who rebooted the My Little Pony franchise in 2010 and turned it into the current My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic phenomenon with an ever-growing fanbase of all ages, is attached to direct the feature.

Sony Pictures Animation president of production Michelle Raimo Kouyate will supervise production, along with Jenny Marchick and Daniel Inkeles. Kouyate states, "After hearing the ingeniously funny pitch from Todd and Holly, we could immediately see the enormous potential in the idea. And when Lauren Faust, a uniquely gifted animation filmmaker with a real talent for relating to audiences, connected with the project, we knew the combination of her vision and their story would create something extraordinary. MEDUSA will be a clever, heartfelt animated comedy about a girl who&#8217;s having the ultimate bad hair day."

Director Faust comments, "Todd and Holly's version of the tale of Medusa is filled with so many of my favorite ideas to work with: magic, mythology, humor and strong, funny, extremely relatable characters. I was excited by the idea of showing the comedy behind an otherwise horrific monster, and I was really drawn to the writer's unique re-imagining of Greek mythology. In our story, we meet Medusa as a young human, who, like so many of us, is overwhelmed with trying to fit a certain mold to please others. Her resulting popularity ticks off the wrong Goddess who turns her into the snake-haired monster we all know and fear. Medusa sets out on a quest to reverse this curse with the help of a goofy team of oddball and misfit mythological creatures who help her learn that what makes you different is, in fact, what makes you strong."

Allcott was a co-writer on the animated feature hit Antz, and most recently worked on the Weinstein Company&#8217;s live-action The Giver, starring Jeff Bridges and directed by Philip Noyce; Golden has enjoyed a successful career in reality television production.

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Going to Phoenix Comicon today. Katie Cook will be there, hopefully she doesn't freak out when I dump of pile of comics for her to sign. Also, when she was at the convention last year, she was doing these cool little water color paintings of any pony of your request. So, I had her do Luna which I shared at one point in the other thread. Well, I moved later last year and I somehow lost my Luna painting. I have been pretty distraught (not really) about losing it so I am hoping that she is doing those water colors again this year. Not only will get a new Luna, but I am hoping to get Applejack as well.

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Woah, thats a huge jump from animating a cartoon to big time Sony funded film. Congrats to Lauren, hope the movie fares well. If they can get the animation team behind Hotel Transylvania, Im sure her movie will be excellent visually.